Full-Time MBA Applications Continue to Decline
Full-Time MBA Applications Decline for a Third Straight Year
Lisa Poole/AP
Fewer students are applying to full-time graduate business and law schools, steered away by concerns about costs and job prospects, according to two reports.
Fewer students are applying to full-time graduate business and law schools, steered away by concerns about costs and job prospects, according to two reports. Photographer: Lisa Poole/AP
Fewer students are applying to full-time graduate business and law schools, steered away by concerns about costs and job prospects, according to two reports.
The average number of applications for two-year, full-time MBA programs declined almost 10 percent from last year, the Graduate Management Admission Council said today. About two- thirds of the 199 programs that responded to its survey reported a drop, continuing a trend that began in 2009, according to the Reston, Virginia-based nonprofit group.
“The caution in this year’s survey for full-time MBA programs is unsurprising in the current economy as students weigh the financial and time commitments required to pursue a graduate business degree,” Dave Wilson, the council’s chief executive officer, said in a statement on the group’s website.
GMAC, which groups about 200 business schools worldwide, administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, required by many business schools.
Flexible MBA programs didn’t see the same declines. About 54 percent of part-time programs reported the same or greater application volume compared with last year, while 58 percent of executive MBA programs saw the same or increased volume.
These groups “fared better, as students were able to continue to work while they completed their course work,” according to the report.
At law schools, applications dropped almost 10 percent for the fall of 2011 -- to 78,900 from 87,500 last year -- according to preliminary data from the Law School Admission Council.
Students appear to be leery of taking on debt for law school in a slow job market, Wendy Margolis, a spokeswoman for the Newtown, Pennsylvania-based nonprofit group, said in a telephone interview. The group’s members are law schools.
“People are really thinking more carefully about why they want to go to law school and what their goals are,” Margolis said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at jkaufman17@bloomberg.net.
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